Low-FODMAP | Gluten-Free | Anti-inflammatory | Vegan
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a small plate
Note: you will need a muslin bag to make a spice bag – you can use just about anything for this, like an old piece of fabric. It just needs to be porous enough to let the simmering soup water in and out, to flavour your soup without leaving hard crunchy spice bits in it.
Ingredients
- 2-3 small eggplants sliced into smallish bite-sized pieces (2cm)
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt (flaky if possible)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cardamom pods
- 2 cloves
- 1 tsp anise seeds (or fennel seeds)
- 1 tbsp onion-infused olive oil
- 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
- 3 fresh curry leaves
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 100g wild rice, cooked
- 500ml water
- If you want/tolerate, natural yoghurt to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 240C (fan 220C) or 475F (gas mark 9).
- Toss the eggplant in a bowl with 2 tbsp olive oil and the salt. Place on a baking tray and roast for 10-15 minutes or until soft and starting to go brown. Allow to cool, then roughly chop.
- Heat the rest of the olive oil in a pan, adding the spices until they become fragrant (do not add chilli, turmeric, tamarind paste or curry leaves). Strain, keeping the oil. Put the spices into a muslin cloth to make a spice bag that can sit in water.
- Add the onion-infused olive oil, and a large pinch of salt.
- Add chilli and curry leaves and cook until fragrant.
- Add the brown sugar and cook until you have a syrupy texture.
- Put the spice bag into the pan, adding the tamarind paste and turmeric, plus 500ml of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the eggplant and rice to the soup, heat through, and serve – with yoghurt if desired.
